After Silk Smitha, adult star Shakeela to get a biopic; Richa Chadha to play the role

Vidya Balan broke the headlines when she played south siren, Silk Smitha, in The Dirty Picture. It was indeed a bold decision for her to play such a risky character, but her portrayal of the legendary actress was lauded by both critics and the audiences. One should remember that it was released at a time when a film with a leading woman wasn’t a common phenomenon in Bollywood. As per latest reports, Bollywood actress Richa Chadha is joining her club now.

Reportedly, Richa is all set to act in the biopic of Shakeela, one of the 90s popular actresses from Kerala who acted in several adult films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada languages.

The biopic will trace Shakeela’s life from when she entered the film business at the age of 16. Soon after her debut, Shakeela became a raging success at the box office. She became a popular figure in the film business at a time when men dominated the industry. Not only her films were dubbed into languages across India but were also dubbed in languages like Chinese and Nepali among several others.

Interestingly, Shakeela made her adult film debut when she was 22-23 year old by playing the younger sister of Silk Smitha in the Tamil film Play Girls.

Reportedly, Shakeela is all set to make a comeback with the Telugu movie Kobbari Matta.

Richa's spokesperson stated, "The film is the story of Shakeela, one of the most famous actors from Malayalam cinema from the 90s who rose to a spectacular amount of fame. Her fans were spread across Asia and she earned fanfare as a woman which back then was unheard of. The film's script was exciting and is a great story to tell and the story will make for a great watch for the audience. The preparations will begin soon and the film should be going on floors in end April or May."

The film, directed by Indrajit Lankesh of Luv U Alia fame, will go on floors this April and will tentatively release by early 2019.